Between the Lines
by Viral
Summary: What happened in the X-Men Movie between the part when Logan left the room where Xavier and Ororo were, until the conversation between he and Ororo was completed downstairs?


Title: Between the Lines

Author: Viral

Summary: What happened in the X-Men Movie between the part where Logan left the room where Xavier and Ororo were, until the conversation between he and Ororo was completed downstairs?

Disclaimer: I own not the X-Men.

Author's Notes: Sometimes in a story you have to read between the lines, sometimes just to get a sense of how certain situations occurred during a dramatic change of scenery. This small story is my own interpretation, of course giving ample pre and post conversations that were already in the movie before my interjections between the scenery changes. 

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Logan rinsed water across his face frantically, quickly, and annoyed. He then dried his face with a towel before turning from the sink to face Professor Charles Xavier. "You said he wanted me," Logan said grimly, preparing to put on his coat as Ororo watched in silence. 

Xavier looked with frustrated eyes, never keeping direct eye contact with Logan, "I made a terrible mistake." He continued without pause, reasoning within himself how he could have been so wrong. "His helmet is somehow designed to block my telepathy." Ororo looked from behind, glaring down at Xavier, taking in everything that was being said, every motion that was subtly being made. Xavier continued after an abrupt stop, "Couldn't see what he was after until it was too late."

Logan waited only for a second after those words before he started walking out of the dimly lit room and proceeded to putting on his winter coat. Ororo immediately spoke up, her African accent somehow lost within the short sentence. "Where are you going?" asked in haste, turning not only her head, but also her whole body to follow his procession out of the room.

He stopped his walking, stopped putting on his coat, and let out his words quickly, "I'm going to find her."

"How?" Xavier asked, turning only his head to spot the runt as he prepared to leave the room.

Logan answered with his witty sarcasm and untamed tongue, "The traditional way: look."

Ororo looked back to Xavier, eyes asking for approval to go after Logan, but the Professor was much to deep in thought and guilt to give her any approval, so she hastily followed after him. She gently placed a hand on Logan's shoulder down the hall and the both of them stopped. He snapped his arm out of her grip, "Look lady, don't touch me." Logan said with a low growl in his voice.

"Logan, what do you expect me to do? Ever since you arrived here you have had little faith within us. How can you be so naive? We want to help the child as much as you do!" she replaced her arm back to her side, looking up to the tall mutant whom had only arrived at the Institute a day before.

"I've been on my own for awhile, I don't need nobody's help!" He put his finger in her face, almost in a motion as if he were reprimanding her.

"I could not care less about your past!"

"Seems like a lie coming from a rich mansion dweller like you," he says, waving his arm in the air. "Compare your past to my present. I was livin in a dirty old trailer when you found me. C'mon lady, don't toy with me."

He prepared to turn around before hearing her voice which immediately stopped him in his tracks, "Logan, you know nothing of my past. During my childhood I was a thief. I was not living in a mansion. A mansion in my childhood was to find a dry alleyway that no one else inhabited on the lonesome streets of Cairo. How dare you assume me as someone who cannot relate to you?"

"I'm sorry about that, but it ain't my problem," once again he snapped, then turned away from her as he proceeded to walking away.

"Why do you keep running away from me?" she asks as a gust of wind quickly overpowers his adamantium encased skeleton and make him fall to the floor along with the decorations in the hallway. He growls as he prepares to get up off the floor. His claws lash out as he charges at Ororo. Her body quickly becomes clothed by lightning and he stops, surprised by the radiance. He had never witnessed the use of Ororo's abilities until now. The carpet begins to heat up from the electricity to a point where it almost burns. She lifts her body off the floor with a slight wind beneath her body. Her eyes watch him with a heart-piercing glare of fury; "I dare you to attack me with those metal claws. Despite your healing factor, before you can even reach the flesh of my body you will be nothing but an electrocuted corpse. We X-Men are not wimps Logan."

"Oh really? Could've surprised me," he retracted his claws as he turned around and began to walk away from her once more. He stepped off of the carpet rug and back onto the hard linoleum floor. He neared the staircase but then stopped when he heard the sound of Ororo's boots walking across the hard floor, right behind him. He turned around in a rage, "Quit followin me! What do you want?"

Ororo looked surprised from his outburst and yells. She could hardly believe she was the one being yelled at. She shook her head and looked at him, "I told you we X-Men are not wimps. You do not need to run off."

"I'm gonna find her -- myself," he made his way down the staircase, leaving Ororo standing there almost until he reached the bottom.

She quickened her steps, hoping to catch up with him. Halfway down the geometrically designed steps, she called out to him, "Logan you can't do this alone," she watched her feet travel down the stairs instead of looking to see if Logan would stop or not because she knew he would.

"Who's gonna help me?" Logan said as Ororo reached the bottom of the steps. He continued walking, still making his way towards the door in a hurry. He continued his words quickly, "You? So far you've all done a bang up job."

"Then help us," Ororo answered, searching for the right words, trying to get him to stay. "Fight with us."

"Fight with you? What, join the team? Be an X-Man? What do you think you are? You're a mutant," his words became cold and bitter just like his wintry home in Canada. "The whole world out there is full of people who hate and fear you, and you're wasting your time trying to protect 'em?" He sighed and shook his head slightly in disapproval. "I got better things to do."

He began walking away and Ororo looked at him finding nothing to say. She looked within herself, now almost hoping that he would leave. That she would not have to deal with the brutal words of an undecided mutant whose most attractive characteristic was still unrevealed. He stopped though, and spoke to her before taking to many footsteps towards the door. "You know Magneto's right; there's a war coming," he said, upper-lip propped, containing attitude and challenge towards Ororo, "You sure you're on the right side?"

Ororo answered with equal authority and challenge, "At least I've chosen aside." Her voice was not as commanding as usual when she would call upon the elements of nature to come to her aid. Her eyes were watery around their edges, but as usual, the strong Windrider refused to shed any tears.

Logan's response was of defeat. He could find no words to say to counter her and made his way towards the door, almost reluctantly. He opened the door, seeing Senator Robert Kelly panting for air and before he knew it the perspiring man fell into his arms.


End file.
